


Sofia the Future

by Comingupwithusernamesishard



Category: Sofia the First (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:49:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26991679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Comingupwithusernamesishard/pseuds/Comingupwithusernamesishard
Summary: A continuation of the series with a teen/young adult Sofia at boarding school with her sister Amber.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

Amber tapped her foot under her desk, glancing habitually at the clock tower across the courtyard until Professor Nearwell scolded her. She sighed, turning her attention to the classroom door.

_Come on, Sofia._

She tapped her foot. The teacher looked at the hourglass on his desk and cocked half his bushy unibrow. Amber smiled sheepishly with a shrug upon realizing his icy eyes had turned on her, then looked back at the door.

She was looking the wrong way, as expected.

The window flew open and Nearwell leaped to his feet as the entire class's attention whipped around.

There Sofia literally _leaped_ into the room, stumbling before sticking the landing with an apologetic bow.

"Sorry Professor!" she professed as her winged steed whipped up to the clouds; _The white one_ , Amber realized. _She must've gone to the isles._

Amber stood before Nearwell could even process his admonishment.

"There's the big race coming up!" she pointed out, breathless as Sofia picked twigs from her unruly auburn hair tamed back in a loose, low bun. "She's--"

"I don't care!" Nearwell snapped, and Amber and Sofia both trained their gazes down as their classmates snickered, sitting down reluctantly as he went into his trademark tardiness lecture. Amber shot Sofia a few sidelong glances until the class officially started.

Sofia got held after class.

Amber hesitated once she'd slipped her notes, quill, and ink fountain into her messenger bag. Sofia shot her a grateful nod, Amber returned it, then left, sighing under her breath on Nearwell's immediate plunge into a bout of protestations on her closing the door behind her. She considered eavesdropping, but knew it would all be the same, and decided to head back for her and Sofia's dorm. 

She was waiting for her sister, arms crossed, on her return.

"Sofia."

"I know..."

"You can't keep doing this!" Amber snapped as Sofia, clearly exhausted, tossed her rucksack in her desk chair. 

"I know..."

Amber huffed. "Then _fix it!_ " she snapped impatiently as Sofia dropped onto her bed, staring at the ceiling; she nearly closed the curtain, but Amber caught her hand.

"Don't even think about it," she cautioned. "We need to _talk_ about this, Sof." She sat down gently beside her sister, plucking the twigs and leaves she'd missed from her hair.

"I know." Sofia stared blankly past Amber, and Amber sighed.

"You're the bravest, kindest person I know," she said. "But even you can't keep doing this. You can't be a student, Protector, and Storykeeper all at once."

"But I _am!"_ Sofia protested. "And I have to be! It's not something you just _give up_ , Amber--I have powers--I have to help people!"

"I know," Amber said. "But sometimes the only way to do that is to not _kill yourself_ in the process."

Sofia sighed, and Amber chuckled wryly.

"The Library is at the castle," she said lowly, mouth straightening into a thin line again as she started plucking the pins from Sofia's hair. "The Storykeeper should be there too."

"But I'm here," Sofia said, blinking blankly up at her sister, and Amber laughed outright.

"That's not what I meant," she said, voice growing serious again. "And I think you know that..."

Sofia blinked up at her, then closed her eyes with somber, subtle nod.

"Good," Amber said, setting the pins from her sister's hair to the side and grabbing her gold-colored, embroidered brush from the bedside table. "So. Who are you considering?" she asked warmly, knowing full well her sister would already have a list prepared.

Sofa sighed.

"It can't be me," she said. "I mean. I don't get to pick. The...it chooses."

"Then give it some _options_ ," Amber gently pushed, running her hand through her sister's long locks alongside the brush.

Sofia blinked a couple times, visibly deflating.

"Jade," she recited quietly, "Ruby."

Amber chuckled.

"Doubtful," she said, and Sofia rolled her eyes, counting on her hand.

"Lucinda."

"The _witch?_ " Amber scoffed. "That's cute, Sof."

"...Cedric."

Amber doubled over laughing.

"Gnarlie."

"Who?"

"Clover--"

"Sofia."

"Gwen--"

" _Sofia_."

"Well who else is there?" Sofia demanded, standing and pulling away from Amber, pacing with her locks flowing freely at her waist, gesturing madly. " _Ivy?_ "

"Incarcerated."

"Aunt Tilly?"

"Retired."

"Miss Ne--"

"Don't even go there."

Sofia huffed, leaning against her desk and crossing her arms.

"Do you want me to pick someone or not?" she demanded.

"I do," Amber said, approaching her sister and gently taking her hands in hers. "But Sofia...you always see the best in people. Not who they actually are. Do you really think any of those people could responsibly handle the Amulet?"

Sofia stared at her, then looked down, at the now burning red gem around her neck.

"It's been changing," Amber noted. "Maybe it already has someone in mind."

"But who?" Sofia demanded, fighting back tears, and Amber gently ushered her sister into a hug.

"I don't know," she admitted, a rare moment indeed, running her hand in comforting circles between her sister's shoulder blades. "But I think the Amulet does." She pulled away and took Sofia's hands in hers again. "I think you know what that means."

Sofia stared at her, then grimly nodded.

"Good," Amber said primly, pulling away. "I'll get packed. We're going home this weekend."


	2. Chapter 2

Sofia spent so many hours of the flying carriage ride going over and over what she'd say, dreading her aunt's reaction, but when the words finally fought their way out, she only enveloped her in a much needed embrace, those simple words echoing in the space between them:

"I'm giving the Amulet away."

It was time. It had to be time. Sofia couldn't be the Storykeeper while she was at boarding school, and she'd tried too long to make it work. Tilly ushered her nieces into the quant manor and had Spruce put some tea on. To their surprise, she led them not to the parlor, but the music room, where she sat them on the piano platform and went to the cabinet of magic music roles.

"Aunt Tilly?" Sofia asked carefully, cocking her head at the woman's back. 

"Moments like these," Tilly said gently, removing a roll and going to the music box, "were made for music."

She placed it inside, and on playing it, a simple tune fell out, reaching Sofia's ears and slipping inside to her mind; she felt it melt and reorder as though in a stencil, forming something new. Amber cocked her head carefully.

"What kind of role is this, Aunt Tilly?" she inquired as their aunt plopped down across from them on the carpet.

"What else?" she asked, perching her chin on her hand. "Thinking music. Think."

Her nieces blinked at her, then looked at their hands in their laps. Tilly chuckled warmly.

"You don't spend much time thinking, do you?" she inquired. "Either of you." 

Their eyes whipped back to hers, Sofia's confused and Amber's indignant.

Tilly chuckled. "Not like that dears. You're both very _smart_ , worry not." She cocked her head primly. "It's just, you never think, do you? Just sit right down and _think._ Perhaps over tea!" she added as Spruce entered with a trey and set it beside his mistress. "Please. Help yourselves."

The girls watcher her, then looked at the tea; there were three cups, but the tea held only hot water.

"Where's the tea?" Amber asked carefully as Sofia quirked a brow at the pot.

"Thing's aren't always what they appear to be," Tilly chimed, taking the pot and pouring herself some hot water; immediately upon reaching the cup, however, it took on a molasses tint, and smelled of peppers and chocolate. Amber knit her brow as the color grew darker still.

"What kind of magic is this?" she inquired, but Tilly merely held the pot out to her, and Amber carefully took it, and poured some in her own cup; the water changed to a thick, opaque white that smelled bitter, even salted, but with a sticky hint of honey; Tilly chuckled. Amber tentatively offered the pot to Sofia; on pouring the liquid into her cup, Sofia raised an inquisitive brow as it turned a sickly green, tainted aromatic but with a touch of cinnamon and herbs.

"I say," Tilly quipped as Sofia tentatively set the teapot aside, plucking her own cup up with a prim pinky perked up and sipping it pensively, "you two've made quite the mixed pots!"

"What does that mean?" Amber demanded indignantly, but Tilly only laughed, holding out her cup expectantly.

"Go ahead," she said, waving to their individual cups. "Cheers."

Sofia and Amber exchanged a glance, but took up their cups and clinked them to their aunt's before sipping them.

They coughed and cringed as soon as the liquid touched their tongues, and their aunt laughed outright, sipping her own contently.

"What does it mean, Aunt Tilly?" Sofia pressed gently, slapping Amber's back as she continued to retch.

Tilly chuckled. "It means what it means," she said, gazing reminiscently at her reflection in her own brown beverage.

"You know," she said, looking back at the girls. "I was in Sofia's place once." They nodded expectantly. Tilly looked back at her teacup. "And every night, I would come stumbling into the kitchen-- I would take the servants' entrance so dear Daddy wouldn't scold me--but one day, a woman who worked at the palace had stayed late cleaning up after a party, and she spotted me. I was mortified she would tell, but she didn't; she said not a word, only offered me hot chocolate." Sofia glanced at Amber. "After that, every night, without fail, whenever I came bumbling into the kitchen from my adventures, there sat a pot of hot chocolate, simmering over a warm fire." She looked at the girls. "That's what I'm feeling. I'm remembering. The warmth. The chocolate. The spice of adventure and the sweetness of returning home." She sipped her warm drink. "It's poignant. It's warm. It hurts a little," she added with a light chuckle, "but it's right." She looked at the girls again. "So. What are you thinking?"

They eyed their aunt's spiced chocolate drink before looking down at their own, and reluctantly sipping them again, then coughing them up again.

Tilly chuckled.

"Now now," she admonished warmly, slipping Amber's cup from her hand. "They can't be _that_ bad." She sniffed it, smiled, then looked to her elder niece. "May I?" Amber only cocked her head, and Tilly sipped the drink.

"Oh," she said, nodding and handing the cup gently back to Amber. "There's something you can't see. You're confused about. But it's something you want." She cocked her head. "Any idea what it could be?"

Amber knit her brow. Tilly shrugged.

"Well, you are nineteen now," she pointed out. "You'll ascend the throne soon; I suppose you have a lot to consider." Amber returned her gaze firmly to her teacup, and Tilly turned to Sofia, holding out her hand. Sofia tentatively pressed her teacup into her aunt's palm, and the duchess sniffed it pensively before taking a sip. She drew her lips tightly.

"What is it?" Sofia pressed. 

"Sofia," her aunt said gently, placing the cup back on the trey, "you are very strong. And very brave." She looked at her niece. "And an honorable princess to your people. And you know nothing would change that, right?" Sofia cocked her head. Tilly shook hers. "But sometimes," she said, "our power isn't in keeping control; sometimes, we have to trust people to save themselves. There's only so much we can do."

"What do you mean?" Sofia demanded, and Tilly sighed, setting her own cup down and standing. 

"You two may spend the night here," she said. "I'll send for our prospective recruits. Sofia, you have a list?"

"Yes, but..." 

"Good," Tilly cut in primly. "I can't wait to get started!"


End file.
